Conventionally the application of a hair colorant to hair or the like necessitated dipping a brush or like applicator into the hair colorant held in a container and withdrawing the moistened applicator from the container. Thus, the application of hair colorants raised problems. For example, the application was very cumbersome and the hair colorant adhered to or soiled the container exterior or scattered because the periphery of applicator was unavoidably contacted with the mouth end of the container in withdrawal from the container.
Recently a new applicator was introduced in an attempt to facilitate application. The new applicator includes a hair colorant container having a valve means therein and a brush or the like on top, and is adapted to supply the hair colorant to its top by knocking to open a valve passage. The new applicator involves knocking and may supply an excessive colorant to the top by too much knocking in which case the colorant is likely to fall in drops or to scatter.
More recently, a new device of the wick-sucking type has been proposed to obviate the above problems (Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publications 154830/1989 and 154831/1989). The device has a wick means formed of a bundle of fibers provided at a container top. One end of the wick means is dipped in a hair colorant within the container to bring the colorant to the other end of wick means protruded outside (application point) through the wick means due to the capillary action of fibers. The device of the wick-sucking type facilitates application and can effectively prevent the scatter of hair colorant from the application point but poses new problems. Since conventional hair colorants contain a volatile solvent and dry quickly, the device encounters the following problems. If the device is left to stand with its cap removed and with the wick means exposed to air at the application point, the so-called dry-up phenomenon occurs in which the other components such as a coloring matter and a resin are dried and solidified by the evaporation of a solvent from the colorant. This phenomenon blocks the flow of colorant at the application point, whereby a coating with a thin spot is formed or a supply of colorant is made impossible.
To overcome the above problems, a hair colorant of low vapor pressure and a slow-drying solvent may be used. This attempt, however, is not successful because the hair colorant impairs the drying property of coating and has an increased viscosity. The addition of a drying inhibitor may be considered but an effective drying inhibitor has not been proposed so far.